blog format

• use the simple template (like this blog)

Pages:
• Journal: place homework videos & other images. This is where posts are created.
• About (Production Still, Tagline, Inspiration, Character History, Influences)
• Shot List & Production Calendar (link to Google Drive document). Template here. Shot List gives dates for specific tasks. For most of you, this means: rough animation, cleanup, coloring, and compositing/editing. The Production Calendar uses class dates to indicate what will be finished for a specific week, loaded on the blog by 9am. These need to be clear and easy to understand, with color-coding for work that has been done.
• Naming Conventions (folders, shots, character drawings, backgrounds, sound, etc.). See link on "The Ogre & the Mermaid"for an idea of how to organize your drawings. Naming convention suggestion, below:

my junior animation (folder) > (folder) sh01 >

(file) sh01_001_chicken.jpg (for character)
(file) sh01_bg.jpg (for background)
(file) cluck.aif (for sound effect)

Identify an image by its shot number, the drawing number, the character or background it portrays, and the type of file it is.

Organize PSD's by labeling each layer in a multi-layered document:

sh01_001_chicken_rough
sh01_001_chicken_clean
sh01_001_chicken_color
sh01_layout
sh01_bg

Depending on your technique and approach, you may need to create the following folders:

• animation > shot #
• backgrounds > shot #
• sound
• project (After Effects and Premiere)

Put these sub-folders in a single, main folder called "junior animation," or whatever the title of your piece is, so that if everything needs to be transferred to another computer, After Effects and Premiere will be able to find individual items. Backup your work regularly to a second hard drive. Start now.

I find the clearest way of naming versions of the same file is to add the date. For example, successive iterations of the main timeline file (After Effects or Premiere) would look like this:

om_main_01_27_14.aep
om_main_03_03_14.aep
om_main_03_17_14.aep

etc.

(om = ogremermaid, main = main timeline, 01_27_14 = the date, and aep = After Effects Project)

One test of your ability to work with other people, as well as being able to demonstrate your ability to make it through a complex project intact, without getting lost and/or frustrated trying to find files, or versions of files, is file organization and naming. Do not leave things unlabeled or un-dated. Pretend that someone else will need to step in and easily understand how to locate a particular file.